Five Gadgets for the Techie in Your Life

With the holiday season in full swing, finding good gifts for the technology lover in your life may actually be more frustrating than you’d think. Since there are so many options, people will often get paralysis from trying to find the right gift and end up going the gift card route. Today we will look at five great gift ideas for the technology fan in your life.

Amazon Echo Spot Smart Hub Like the Echo and the Echo Plus, the Amazon Echo Spot Smart Hub features the useful Amazon personal assistant, Alexa. The difference is, however, that the Echo Spot is designed to be an alarm clock. Instead of just being a speaker like the Echo Dot, Echo, and Echo Plus the Echo Spot has a small screen that shows the user what time it is and what the weather is like by default. It is a more compact version of the Echo Show, and looks great on a nightstand. Some of the features the Echo Spot offers include:

Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant

A customizable clock (analog & digital with many customizable options)

Amazon Prime streaming

Video chat with other Echo Spot/Show users

Smart speaker and microphone

The Amazon Echo Spot is available for a reasonable $129.99 and can be found anywhere where major electronics are sold.

Roku Premiere By now, most people have heard of the Roku, the device that allows people to stream video to their televisions with the use of an HDMI-connected interface. The Roku Premiere has a very attractive price point ($39.99) and allows the user to stream 4K video. Other popular streaming media players like the Amazon Fire Stick 4K and Apple TV 4K now allow for 4K streaming, but they typically come at a higher price point. The gift is perfect for the cord-cutter in your life who still wants to experience the premium content offered by today’s major media services.

iRobot Roomba 690 It is the rare individual that enjoys vacuuming the floor. Like raking leaves and shoveling snow, it is a repetitive, and relatively not-fun way to spend time. The people at iRobot understand our disdain for it and have created the Roomba line of robot vacuums to help make people’s houses cleaner. While Roomba is the most popular robot vacuum on the market, and offers several models to choose from, many people veer away from purchasing one because they are skeptical about the machine’s cleaning effectiveness. The 690 model is firmly in the center of their offerings. The company advertises its “Dirt Detect” technology that senses how dirty an area is as it goes about its regular cleaning, and focuses more time and attention on the dirtiest spots on the floor. The Roomba 690 is currently available for $374.99.

TP-Link Wi-Fi Range Extender Wi-Fi is extremely important for almost everyone these days, and sometimes it just isn’t possible to get a strong signal throughout a house. If someone is constantly complaining about their Wi-Fi problems, TP-Link has introduced a range extender that is super simple to use. The TP-Link Wi-Fi Range Extender plugs into a wall outlet and does what its name suggests, giving you more range on your router’s wireless Internet. The AC1750 model can be had for $90, with several more affordable options available.

Tile Mate Designed for the person that can’t help but misplace things, the Tile Mate is a great solution. The Tile Mate is a small disk that fits on a keychain or any other small object. When the item is out of view, simply use the app associated with the device and it will make a ringing noise. Even neater, if you have something with a Tile Mate attached to it, you can double-press the tile button on the device and make your phone ring, even when it’s on silent. A four-pack of Tile Mates can be purchased for as low as $70, with single Tile Mates going for $25.

The holiday season is a great time to give the people you care about the newest technology. What technology items are you looking to purchase for the people on your holiday shopping list? Leave your list in the comments below.

About the author

Chris is a hopeless Technology Fanatic, an Inbound & Outbound Marketing Expert as well as an Senior IT Advisor, Web, Graphics & Software Designer. When he's not running Directive and JoomConnect he's probably sharpening his skills as an Amateur Photographer and Filmmaker. Chris lives with his wife Charlotte and their 2 sons in Upstate NY. Visit his photography site at www.directivestudios.com.